Quote Of The Day

Hanson's runner Mike Morgan (2:15:27) after leading Sunday's California International Marathon for 23 miles before Josh Cox (2:13:51) and Tesfaye Girma-Bekele (2:13:42) passed him. In the link is a good recap of the race from The Sacramento Bee's John Schumacher.

On The Boards

Fukuoka Marathon - Tsegaye Kebede Negative Splits; Smashes Japanese Soil Record 2:05:18 - Will HE Be The Next WR Holder?

2009 Fukuoka Marathon ResultsTiny Tsegaye Kebede showed he knows the best way to run marathon records, hammering home a 29:14 from 30-40k to lock up a 2nd-straight Fukuoka win and course record 2:05:18. Kebede's only 22 and his marathon PR is only 8 seconds away from Sammy Wanjiru's.

2010 Virgin London Marathon Announces Stellar Elite FieldsReigning London and World Marathon Major champions Sammy Wanjiru and Irina Mikitenko will defend their titles in what looks to be again the world's toughest marathon fields. Two top challengers on the women's side are '09 Bank of America Chicago
winner Liliya Shobukhova of Russia and '09 world champ Bai Xue of China along with a ton of either aging or rising stars. On the men's side, it's a stacked deck with world champ Abel Kirui (left), half Marathon sensation Zersenay Tadese, Kenyan record holder Duncan Kibet and once-unbeatable Martin Lel. Top Americans at this point are Deena Kastor, returning to the course where she set her 2:19 American record in 2006, and Abdi Abdirahman.

LetsRun.com's The Week That Was Last week was a hodgepodge type of week in the running world but thankfully we
have you covered. Our observations are short and all over the place,
but nearly all running fans will have at least something that interests
them. We talk about a wide range of characters including Sammy Wanjiru, Günther Weidlinger, Angela Bizzarri, Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Alberto Salazar, German Fernandez, Ryan Vail, Tim Montgomery, Caster Semenya, Aisling Cuffe, Lukas Verzbikas, Joe Rosa and others.

Johnson did stop short of calling track and field "dead" in America, probably an astute decision given US athletes won more medals than any other country in '08 and '09. And how about this for proof of track's immense popularity in the US? Turkey Trot Participation Surged Again In 2009

Crews, 25, has run 3 marathons and won all 3, including his latest, a negative-split PR 2:17 win in Philly to become the first American winner since Cornellian Brian Clas in 2000. LetsRun's Employee #1 finished 7 minutes behind Crews in 2nd.

Former NCAA 1,500m champion, American record-holding DMR anchor and 4th-placer at NCAA cross-country Brie Felnagle fell off the radar last spring when she skipped the NCAA outdoor track season. She tells FloTrack she took time away due to burnout and is excited for her final outdoor season coming
up.

Has The World Gone Crazy?! Bolt Super Party Shut Down By Cops At 4 amEverybody knows Bolt doesn't even consider it a party until he's watching the sun come up. The man runs 19.19, flies Ludacris to his party and can't have a proper bash?

LetsRun.com:Interesting Argument In UK Over Britain's European Cross-Country Spots
A LRC reader from GBR wrote us an email about the selection process for Great Britain's Euro XC team. We share the email with you and use it as proof that the best way to select championship team members is by selecting based on their performance in a single qualifier rather than having subjective bids.

You Can Vote For The US Sports Academy's 2009 Athlete Of The Year 4 female tracksters and Usain Bolt made the final 12 voting. It's interesting to see who the finalists are, as Linet Masai, a chubby Argentinian golfer andSantonio Holmes are on the same ballot.
Or you could vote for an inspiring athlete from another sport such as NASCAR
driver Jimmie Johnson.

Three Running-Related Articles

Brief Chat With Villanova Women's Coach Gina Procaccio Former running standout Gina Procaccio, who returns 4 of the 'Nova top 5 next year, talks about recruiting second-tier runners and her excitement at 2 women coaches in the top 2 at NCAAs (Karen Harvey's FSU team was 2nd).

America - 30,000 Troops To Afghanistan? Who Cares, Let's Hear More About Tiger!

Other Athletes React To Tiger-Gate"We made ourselves too accessible to you. It backfires on the athlete.
We don't get to write a story about y'all. An athlete makes a mistake,
everybody wants to write about it. It's a one-way street, like it has
always been." - NFL All-Pro linebacker Joey Porter commenting on the Tiger Woods saga.

Patrick Konchellah Dies At Age 44
The younger brother of 2x world champion Billy Konchellah and uncle to world champion Yusuf Saad Kamel, Patrick Konchellah was a Commonwealth Games 800m champion and finished 4th at the 1997 World Championships. As brother Billy pointed out, "The guy was a great athlete and ran faster than I did (1:42.98 personal best) and the country has lost one of its most gifted runners."

Galen Rupp And Alan Webb In Nike Spoof Ad

Best Race Of The Year? Maggie Vessey At Pre

LRC:The NCAAs That WereThe Week That Was focuses on one thing for the most part, as last week the world of US distance running was dominated by one thing: NCAA cross-country. We break it all down for you and tell you who flopped (a ton of teams/individuals), who excelled (very few), and what to expect in 2010. Along the way, we
talk about mid-d runners Andrew Wheating and Dorian Ulrey, give major propsto Gina Procaccio and to the one team that seemingly did well on Monday (Villanova) and tell you why close to 75% of women All-Americans and 60% of men All-Americans had better start getting nervous.

2009 NCAA D1 XC Championship Results

Vin Lananna Post-NCAAs

NCAA Champ Angela Bizzarri

Usain Bolt's ESPN Commercial Released

New LRC Readers' Book Reviews

From Last To First, A Race Like No Other, And See Dane RunFrom Last To First is the autobiography on English marathon record holder Charlie Spedding, A Race Like No Other is NY Times Writer Liz Robbins' take on the NYC Marathon, and See Dane Run recounts a guy who ran a marathon a week for a year.

Recommended Reads - You Can Buy The Books Online

More Great Deals

Training Advice

Advice From The Pros

Top 10 Training Tips
LetsRun.com's Weldon Johnson gives his top 10 training tips in this letsrun.com classic when the site first launched. They helped him knock 1:22 off his 10k pr in one race and will definitely help you too.

No Shortcuts link fixed
LetsRun.Com coaching consultant John Kellogg outlines his basic coaching approach and gives the four principles to correct training for elites. LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson translates Mr. Kellogg's approach so that it is beneficial for the masses.

Wejo Speaks:

Why I Sucked In College Perhaps Wejo's most popular training article ever. Wejo explains why he was only a mediocre college runner, yet ended up running 28:06 for 10k.

Highlights From Our Archives

Kenya:

LetsRun.com's Wejo went to Kenya for the World XC Championships and then he toured the country and explored the secrets of some of the Kenyan greats. See some of his insights on this incredible country.

Controlled Chaos Read about incredible one-of-a-kind 2007 World XC Championships in Mombasa, Kenya. Tens of thousands of people packed like sardines, hanging in trees, in oppressive heat, all
to
see the Cross-Country Championships for the first time in Kenya. There will never be a party like this one again.